The White House is leaning on Mayor Bloomberg to help create a broader package of federal gun-violence prevention initiatives than just bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips, according to a report yesterday.
Bloomberg, one of the most outspoken national gun-control advocates, has been critical of President Obama on the issue, and observers say the White House’s outreach could be an effort to win him over.
“We have made what we want done clear,” Bloomberg spokesman Marc LaVorgna said yesterday.
A White House working group headed by Vice President Joe Biden is looking at requiring universal background checks for gun buyers, tracking the movement and sale of weapons through a national database, strengthening mental-health checks and stiffening penalties for carrying guns near schools or giving them to minors, sources told The Washington Post.
The White House has had regular contact with Bloomberg aides, the paper said.
“They’re looking at this very comprehensively.”Obama formed the task force in the wake of last month’s massacre at a Newtown, Conn., school.
He has demanded that the working group submit the package of recommendations to him by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, even as Bloomberg wants to curtail arms, some folks on Staten Island are putting the National Rifle Association’s call for more guns in schools to a vote.
The borough’s Community Education Council will tonight consider a proposal to recommend putting guns in schools by hiring 300 to 500 retired cops to rotate among the city’s 1,750 schools as armed, plainclothes guards.
The idea has gained some support, but the vote is symbolic.
The council has the power only to make recommendations to the school board, whose leaders have said they have no interest in putting guns in New York schools.